The Physicians of Myddfai

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The outline and form of the parish is sufficiently eccentric and irregular so as to beg the question of how such a territorial or administrative unit could have come into existence. What or whom for example, determined that the parish boundary should run along tiny rivulets such as the Mydan and the Rhyddan. This raises the more general question of how and by what processes did parishes in West Wales take on their form. Parishes were essentially units of ecclesiastical administration. They were probably first formed when Norman bishops started forming dioceses in the twelfth century. It is doubtful however if the Norman bishops started with a clean slate as it were and their new parishes were probably based on earlier and older land holding systems. One presumes that the parish was essentially that area of land deemed sufficient to support a clergyman by virtue of tithes or other emoluments. The saga commences on Easter Sunday 1744 when the then Elizabeth Lewis and her future sister-in-law attended the morning service at the parish church. After the service and sermon were over they adjourned to an ale house in the village where they stayed until late in the evening. On Easter Monday both women together with Morgan Beynon went to a dance at Carreg Sawdde by Llangadog. Later that evening Morgan Beynon and Elizabeth Lewis decided to get married there and then. The curate of Llangadog, one Evan Griffiths was found and said he required a fee of ten shillings to marry them. Morgan Beynon could not afford to pay this fee, whereupon the curate agreed to marry them for half a crown, since in any case he was a friend of the bridegroom. The Lords Audley, Lords of Llandovery until 1497. At this stage the Lordship of Llandovery reverted to the crown and was in the direct gift of the monarch from hence forth. There is nothing that obviously and uniquely distinguishes the parish of Myddfai from the many other rural parishes in what was recognised as the county of Carmarthenshire. The casual visitor will find that its topography and landscape are in general indistinguishable from that of the many other parishes of the region where farming has been the principal and traditional occupation of the majority of its inhabitants. A descriptlon of the parish given by Samuel Lewis in his Topographical Dictionary of 1833, although somewhat flamboyant still holds true in general. He writes -

There is little doubt that the overseers were under constant surveillance and pressure from the majority of their fellow parishioners to reduce the level and burden of the poor rate. One way of cutting down on expenditure gave rise to one of the most disagreeable practices associated with poor law administration, or so it seems to us today. The Act of Settlement of 1662 had given legal powers to the overseers to expel or remove from their own parish certain persons who were not born within the parish or who had no right of settlement there. In practice this meant the removal of those who were or likely to become a charge on the poor rate of the parish. After 1846 the act was ameliorated a little in that persons who had been resident for five years were deemed to be legally settled and therefore not liable to eviction or removal as it was termed. The whole ethos of the poor law was that the parish looked after its own and no one else if it could help it. The accounts for 1818-19 thus record costs For removal and suspension of William MorganThe record of the resolutions taken at the Court Baron is given at length since it is such a rich and important source of information concerning aspects of the life and work of parishioners, but in particular of the freeholders. One feature however which was not included, but which appears in the actual records of the court are cases involved in the recovery of debts and damages under forty shillings. The case of Rhys Richards must have been quite typical. He was born in Tredegar cottage on Caegwyn in 1824 and walked to Merthyr Tydfil when he was twelve years old. In 1851 he is recorded as being an 'engine tender' having married a Barbara who was Merthyr born. John Walters was born at Mount Pleasant, Myddfai in 1814; by 1851 he was an ostler at the Bush Hotel, Merthyr Tydfil. The following is a list showing the kind of work obtained by the those who went from Myddfai to Merthyr.

The parish charged the overseer however with many more responsibilities than simply to collect and distribute the poor rate income. Their work entailed looking after the welfare of the paupers and their families literally from the cradle to the grave. This, however, was to be done as cheaply as possible and furthermore only bona fide parishioners were to be catered for. Destitute children of paupers and sometimes others had to be clothed and shod. Thus we find as a typical example The Physicians of Myddfai ( Welsh: Meddygon Myddfai) were, according to local folklore, a succession of physicians who lived in the parish of Myddfai in Carmarthenshire, Wales. The village of Myddfai lies as a planner or bureaucrat might have wished; rather idyllically situated at the centre of the parish in so far as one can have a central point to such an area. The village 'square' is at an elevation of approximately 364 feet (111m) above sea level. The village is dominated by the parish church set and raised up somewhat at its centre. Until the beginning of this century the exterior of the church was regularly white-washed as was the church-yard wall. The sight of the church in its pristine whiteness must have made an indelible impression on all parishioners. All the great yew and sycamore trees in the churchyard have now gone but in the middle of the last century there is a record of there being one yew tree with a trunk diameter of just over seventeen feet and a sycamore tree of eight feet.

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Barlow, Robin, ed. (2018), Transactions of the Physicians of Myddfai Society (in English and Welsh), The Physicians of Myddfai Society, ISSN 2516-7758 There are other strong pointers to there being bronze-age people living within the confines of the parish and perhaps many such people. These pointers take the form of a number of stone cairns on Mynydd Bach. All of these cairns are now represented at best by rather low mounds of loose stones since the original cairns have been despoiled in some way or other. There are nine or ten of these so called cairns on Mynydd Bach. Two of these being larger than the others, have been named respectively as Tomen y Rhos and Carn Pant Meddygon.................... For the parish of Myddfai two overseers of the poor were appointed annually by the Church Vestry, one for the upper division of the parish and similarly for the lower division. These overseers almost invariably also acted as churchwardens, thus in their capacity as overseers they were responsible for setting and collecting the Poor Rate whilst in their capacity as churchwardens they were primarily responsible for setting and collecting the Church rate. The Church Rate strictly speaking was to be used for 'the repair of the nave of the parish church and for furnishing the utensils for divine service' but in practice it extended much beyond this for money was raised to finance a host of other functions under the jurisdiction of the churchwardens such as the destruction of vermin to give but one example. Intending members should apply to the Secretary who will send a form of application for membership.